Seven Wonders of Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors

Seven Wonders of Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors — page 9
Other asteroids have even more unusual shapes For instance 4179 Toutatis and 1620 Geographos are shaped like rounded off boxcars On the other hand 216 Kleopatra looks like a dog bone and 4769 Castalia resembles a hamburger bun An even more interesting asteroid is 624 Hektor It is shaped like two beach balls just touching each other It is probably the result of two asteroids colliding But the collision was a gentle one Instead of hitting so hard they shattered the two asteroids stuck together Visiting Hektor would be a weird experience If you were to hike to the contact region you would see a mountain of rock 93 miles 150 km high hanging directly over your head Astronomers have discovered asteroids with many unusual shapes The asteroid 216 Kleopatra resembles a dog bone